Originality. Is it possible anymore?

  An issue I have discussed a few times with a fellow writer (my dear kouhai;)) is whether we modern writers can be original withought being absolutely ridiculous.

 Creating a great story is somewhat simple. You want your characters to be decent? You follow a few rules so that they make sense. You want your storyline to keep readers on their toes? You follow a few rules so that the scenario is never boring. You want the fantasy aspect of the story to make sense? You follow a few rules to create a world system. And I am not implying that writing is a strategy game. Writing is very spontaneous, especially in fantasy, but after the idea hits you, you’d want to strategize in order to create a structured piece of work. So these so called ‘’rules’’ or guidelines we tend to follow, sometimes even instinctively, are almost standard. I bet that a writer of fantasy who wrote a century ago, followed the same guidelines instinctively with the writers of today. There is also the issue of the incredible amount of fantasy stories being told through books, manga, comics, games, tv series. There are so many of us writing, pouring our hearts out in our creations and it’s inevitable that some stories will cross one another. Plus every creator is generally an avid ‘’consumer’’, deeply involved in the art of others, possibly from a very young age (being influenced by it).

  Here rises the question of originality. Can we truly be original after all I mentioned above? I have had friends point out similarities my work has with others and at first (when I was a nineteen year-old, fresh off my fanfiction stories) I was truly bothered. How dare they compare my work with that of others? I might not be the best writer, but I sure am original! (Boy, how cocky was I?) I have given this issue a lot of thought and realized that no, we cannot be completely original. We have to follow some sort of guideline so that the story makes sense, we ‘’consume’’ art ourselves and love it, wanting to integrate aspects of it in our work and finally there are so many of us that it only makes sense to have a few common ideas. And guess what? It’s ok! Because even if a few aspects of our stories end up alike, each story is told differently and uses a different combination of these aspects.

Stories are like human beings. No one is exactly similar to another, but we do share more than a few common characteristics with different people.  

(All opinions above are completely personal and not based in any sources.)

C.T.K.